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New JKR Manual
New JKR Manual
Acknowledgement
This Report is extracted from the newly revised pavement design manual of JKR
titled ‘Design of Flexible Pavement Structures’. It is a manual for the structural
design of new apshalt pavements and asphalt pavement overlays. The manual
was prepared by Unit Kejuruteraan Pavemen, Caw. Penyelidikan &
Pembangunan (CPP) in a study project which commenced in May 2005.
Pengarah CPP was the Project Director and he was assisted by Ketua Unit
Kejuruteraan Pavemen, Ir. Syed Abdul Rahman bin Syed Abdullah as the Study
Leader. Mr. Walter Tappeiner of Advanced Pavement Technologies International
was appointed as a consultant in drafting this manual in close cooperation with
the Study Leader.
INTRODUCTION
The current JKR Manual on Pavement Design (Arahan Teknik (Jalan) 5/85) is
loosely based on the 1981 Asphalt Institute (MS-1) and AASHTO design
procedures. However these procedures have undergone several revisions;
NCHRP Research Project 20-7 was undertaken, the results of which were used
to formulate a substantial revision of the AASHTO Guide for the Design of
Pavement Structures which was issued in 1986. Another revision to the AASHTO
Guide was published in 1993 (GDPS-4) and further amended in 1998 (GDPS-
4S). By comparison, Arahan Teknik (Jalan) 5/85 dates back to 1985 and is thus
by international standards outdated by several “technical generations”. The
Manual does not allow designing pavement structures that are either sufficiently
durable for current and future highway traffic, or optimised in terms of function
and user safety.
Unit Kejuruteraan Pavemen, CPP has therefore conducted a study in this area, a
result of which is a revised and substantially upgraded pavement design manual
which incorporates performance based stress and strain analysis and
mechanistic material characterisation. The Manual is presented in the form of
catalogue of pavement structures with traffic volume and sub-grade strength as
primary input.
This Manual contains procedures for the design of the following pavement
structures;
For the purpose of this Manual, flexible pavements shall consist of one or more
bituminous paving materials and a bituminous or granular road base supported
by a granular sub-base. Semi-flexible pavements shall include cement-bound or
similarly stabilised base course consisting either of plant-mixed aggregate
stabilised with cement, fly-ash or lime or of an in-situ recycled and stabilised
layer using CIPR technique, incorporating additives such as bituminous
emulsion, foamed bitumen or cement.
This Manual does NOT contain information related to the design of new rigid
pavement structures.
In the design process, type and course thickness of paving materials are
selected to ensure that the above strains remain within an acceptable range.
Vertical sub-grade strain is adopted as a design criterion to control accumulation
of permanent deformation of the sub-grade. Sub-grade deformation (strain) is
primarily a function of sub-grade stiffness and strength, traffic (design load and
cumulative traffic volume over design period), and the thickness and stiffness of
the pavement structure above the sub-grade. Horizontal strain at the bottom of
the bound layer (bituminous or cement treated material) is used to control fatigue
damage due to repeated traffic loads. Both of these strain values are expressed
as a function of traffic volume. The allowable design strain is that which occurs
under a single pass of an Equivalent Standard Axle Load (ESAL). Allowable
strain values decrease with increasing traffic volume; strain caused by a single
pass of the design wheel load must be smaller for a pavement designed for high
volumes of traffic than for low traffic volumes.
Wheel Load 40 kN
The Equivalent Standard Axle Load (ESAL) used in this Manual is 80 kN, which
corresponds to the standard axle load used in the AASHTO pavement design
procedure.
Three types of raw traffic data are typically collected and entered into a data
base; vehicle counts, vehicle classification, and load data. Based on current
Malaysian practice of traffic characterisation, two types of data are available for
structural pavement design;
Traffic volume and percent commercial vehicles from the JKR national
traffic data base (administered by the Highway Planning Unit or HPU).
Axle load studies, which provide information about the axle load
spectrum for selected types of roads and highways in Malaysia.
Axle load studies provide information about the type of commercial vehicles and
axle loads for a specific road section. Axle configurations and corresponding load
equivalence factors (LEF) used as basis for this Manual are shown in Table 1.
For pavement design purposes, mixed traffic (axle loads and axle groups) is
converted into the number of ESAL repetitions by using load factors. The
structural design of a pavement is then based on the total number of ESAL
passes over the design period. Load factors can be determined from theoretically
calculated or experimentally measured truck and axle loads. Information from
axle load studies carried out in Malaysia and from legal loads in Malaysia
(Maximum Permissible Gross Vehicle and Axle Loads, RTA 1987, Weight
Restriction Order 2003) have been used as basis for calculating commercial
vehicle load factors for traffic classes monitored by HPU.
Motorcycles MC N/A 0
Commercial CV % 3.5
Traffic (Mixed)
Note: Axle load studies provide the most reliable basis for calculating ESAL; axle
load studies should be carried out and used whenever feasible.
In the absence of an axle load study, Table 1a below shall be used as a guide.
TABLE 1a: Guide for Load Equivalence Factor without Axle Load Study
The following permissible gross vehicle weights (MGVW) and maximum axle
loads (MAL) in accordance with List 1 (Peninsular Malaysia) of the Road
Transport Act, Weight Restrictions Order 2003, were used as basis for
calculating Vehicle Load Factors (VLF) shown in Table 1.
Axle Loads:
o Maximum Single Axle (4 Wheels): 12 tonnes
o Maximum Tandem Axle: 19 tonnes
o Maximum Tridem Axle: 21 tonnes
Design Procedure
The procedure for calculating the Traffic Category to be used as design input
(number of 80 kN ESALs over Design Period, see Table 3), is as follows;
a. Number of lanes.
b. Terrain conditions (flat; rolling; mountainous).
4. Calculate the Design Traffic (Number of ESALs) for the Design Lane
and Base Year Y1 (First Year of Design Period) using the following
formula;
where;
ESALY1 = Number of ESALs for the Base Year (Design Lane)
ADT = Average Daily Traffic
PCV = Percentage of CV (Un-Laden Weight > 1.5 tons)
VLF = Vehicle Load (Equivalence) Factor (including Tire Factor)
L = Lane Distribution Factor (refer to Table 1c)
T = Terrain Factor (refer to Table 1d)
where;
ADTVC2, etc = Average Daily Number of Vehicles in each Vehicle Class
VLF2, etc = Vehicle Load Factor of applicable vehicle class
Other symbols as shown for Equation (1).
Other design input factors used in Equations (1) and (2) are provided
in Tables 1c and 1d below.
One 1.0
Two 0.9
Note: Traffic in the primary design lane (one direction) decreases with
increasing number of lanes.
Flat 1.0
Rolling 1.1
Mountainous/Steep 1.3
where;
T1 ≤ 1.0 ≥ 60%
Properties of Sub-Grade
SG 1 5 to 12 50 to 120 60
The correlation between sub-grade stiffness and CBR values shown in Table 4
above is based on the following criteria;
For the purpose of this Manual, paving materials are classified into several
categories in accordance with their intended function within the pavement
structure. The categories include (from top of the pavement downwards);
Descriptions of all paving materials used in this Manual are contained in the new
JKR Standard Specifications for Road Works and are summarised in Figure 6 of
this Manual.
For the design of pavement structures presented in this Manual, the following
average pavement temperatures are adopted;
The design used to develop the catalogue of pavement structures shown in this
Manual is based on default values (Table 5 below). If mechanistic design is
carried out in lieu of adopting one of the pavement structures offered in this
Manual, material input parameters similar to those shown below or developed on
the basis of mechanistic laboratory tests (elastic modulus) shall be used. The use
of design input values that differ by more than 50% from the design values
shown below is discouraged.
Unbound granular materials used for road base consist of crushed rock or gravel
with a grading that imparts on the mixture a mechanically stable course that is
capable of distributing effectively traffic loads transmitted by overlaying
bituminous courses. The performance of well graded granular materials is largely
governed by their shear strength, stiffness and by material break-down that may
occur during construction and as a consequence of heavy traffic. The presence
of excessive fine material and moisture has a detrimental influence on stiffness
and stress distribution capacity of unbound granular courses. Adequate shear
strength and drainage is usually obtained when the percentage of fine material (≤
0.075 mm) does not exceed 10%.
Both materials show similar composition, but construction practices are different.
The minimum CBR requirement for Crushed Aggregate Road Base and for Wet-
Mix Road Base is 80% corresponding to an elastic modulus of about 350 ± 100
MPa.
JKR Standard Specifications for Road Works include the following types of
stabilised road base;
Materials stabilised with cement exhibit higher stiffness and strength, but are
more prone to cracking. Materials stabilised primarily with bituminous emulsion
show usually lower structural stiffness but are more strain tolerant. Both of these
stabilising agents can be combined to yield a paving mixture with desired
performance properties. For the design of pavement structures included in the
catalogue of this guide, the following elastic modulus and Poisson’s ratio values
were assumed;
Temperature
A catalogue from which pavement structures can be selected for a range of sub-
grade support conditions and traffic volumes is presented in Figures 8A, 8B, 8C,
8D and 8E of this Manual. As an example, Figure 8C of this Manual is shown
below (layer thickness is in cm). These pavement cross sections have been
designed for roads and highways that are typical for conditions in Malaysia. For
rural and other low volume roads, either cross sections from this catalogue
(Traffic Category: < 1 million ESALs) or pavement structures provided in Table 7
of Section 4.1 can be used. For pavements with unusually severe loading
conditions, such as container terminals or other areas where pavements are
exposed to high loads and long loading times, the use of a mechanistic design
procedure and of special high-performance paving materials is recommended.
Pavement materials used in this catalogue are shown in Figure 6 of this Manual
and included in the new JKR Standard Specification for Road Works.
For the design of pavement structures shown in the catalogue of this Manual,
one or more of the following programs were used as design tools:
Worked Example
Design a road pavement for a 2-lane highway with an average daily traffic of
1350 vehicles, 16% of which are commercial vehicles with an un-laden weight >
1.5 tons.
Traffic count data indicate a total of 2700 vehicles in both directions; pavement
design is then based on 1350 vehicles (one direction, 24 hour period). If the
design is based on traffic data from an HPU survey, the result based on a 16-
hour survey (usually 06:00 to 22:00 hours) should be multiplied with 1.2.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
The newly revised pavement design manual of JKR titled Design of Flexible
Pavement Structures shall replace the current JKR Manual on Pavement Design
ie. Arahan Teknik (Jalan) 5/85. The new Manual provides JKR and consultants
engaged in pavement engineering projects in Malaysia with a uniform process of
designing pavements for all classes of traffic. The Manual is based on proven,
validated pavement design technologies; it builds on past JKR practice and
experience and on design methodologies that have been successfully used in
other countries over the last twenty years. The design approach recommended in
the Manual combines improved design development data and mechanistic
methods of analysis into a single tool that is presented in the form of a catalogue
of pre-designed pavement structures.
In the case of special project conditions or requirements, mechanistic elastic
multi-layer design can be carried out using project specific input parameters in
conjunction with one of the software programs recommended in the Manual.
FINAL REPORT:
JKR 20601-LK-0156-KP-05
FIGURE 8C: Pavement Structures for Traffic Category T 3: 2.0 to 10.0 million ESALs (80 kN)
BSC: 5 BSC: 5
Full Depth: BSC: 5 BSC: 5
BC/BB: 13 BC/BB: 13
Asphalt BC/BB: 16 BC/BB: 15
GSB: 15 GSB: 10
Concrete
GSB: 20 GSB: 15
Base